21 years old, Female, Wisconsin resident
Traditional, First generation, White, First time applicant
Applying to: Wisconsin and Iowa
Will be graduating the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a B.S. in Animal Science with an emphasis in Pre-Veterinary Medicine in May 2018.
I'm primarily interested in food animal medicine.
Cumulative GPA: 3.495
Science GPA: ?? (Not sure how to calculate this, so any input or links would be helpful!)
Last 45 GPA: 3.43
Last 30 GPA: 3.56
GRE: Verbal: 152 (55th percentile), Quantitative: 153 (51st percentile), Analytical Writing: 4.5 (82nd percentile). I will be retaking this at the end of July.
Veterinary Experience (1,100+ hours):
- Almost 1,000 working as a kennel assistant and vet assistant at a small animal clinic.
- The remainder of the hours are a wide variety of food animal and equine hours spent shadowing a wide variety of veterinarians at 4+ different clinics/places.
Animal Experience (~ 800+ hours):
- Worked at a dog kennel in high school for about 3 years cleaning and supervising dogs in the courtyard. Was trusted with money, clients, and managing the business in the absence of the owner.
- Volunteered at therapeutic horsemanship center once a week for two summers during high school.
- Was a TA in high school AP Biology class where my job was to care for the animals of the room and Animal Facility. Also got to help students in their studies at the same time.
- Worked at a dairy farm during my sophomore year of undergrad, was responsible for feeding calves and milking ~60 cows in a stanchion barn.
- Got certified to do Artificial Insemination my junior year of undergrad through Accelerated Genetics, which involved hands-on practice with the cows.
- Did a small bit of horseback riding.
- I have quite a bit of hours accumulated pet sitting but wasn't sure if I should include it; the one I was going to include would be for my neighbor's cat that had a bunch of health issues I had to attend to, not healthy animals.
Extracurricular:
- Hobbies such as hunting, fishing, gardening (thinking of adding more since I am the outdoorsy type)
- Pre-Veterinary Club Member, VP (sophomore & junior year), and President (senior year)
- In high school, I was a mentor for a girl who was also interested in becoming a vet. Got her a job at the small animal clinic I worked at, where she realized being a vet wasn't for her and went to be a CVT instead.
- Alpha Zeta Member
- National Residence Hall Honorary Member
- Lots of volunteering and involvement through FFA in high school
Work Experience:
- Work at a flower shop in my hometown during school breaks.
- Worked as a Resident Assistant at my university at an agriculture-exclusive residence hall.
- Was hired and currently am the Senior Assistant at that same agriculture-exclusive residence hall.
Honors and Awards:
- 2 scholarships from high school, 2 scholarships from my university, 1 scholarship from an outside source.
- 5 awards from FFA in high school.
- 1 award from the Department of Residence Life at university.
- Artificial Insemination certification.
- Potential PADI scuba diving certification later this summer.
LOR:
- Animal Science Professor and my Advisor at my university
- Animal Science Professor, DVM, and Pre-Vet Club advisor at my university
- My Resident Director
- Animal Science Professor at my university
- DVM that I used to work for in high school
Concerns:
- I'd really like to get into Wisconsin, but my GPA and GRE scores are not all that competitive. I do have extenuating circumstances (family illness) that occurred during my sophomore year through fall of junior year that I've explained as the cause of those poor grades/scores. The improvement in my grades is noticeable after my family situation ended in the winter of my junior year, but I am still concerned since Wisconsin seems to take grades and the GRE pretty seriously.
- I have no research hours but I'm looking to get some this coming semester.
So...what do ya'll think?
Thank you in advance for anyone that gives feedback, I really appreciate it!!